Monthly Archives: February 2012

Banks have invested millions of dollars in branch IT and training, but all too often the customer onboarding process remains frustrating and error-prone.

Take the example of a friend of ours who recently opened an account with a major U.S. bank. She visited a local branch to open a checking account. The branch staff were friendly enough, but the process was grueling: it took about an hour to fill out forms, wait for computer responses, and so on.

A week later, she learned that even though the branch staff had spent a lot of time opening her account, they had made several glaring errors:

They opened two accounts for her, not one.

They misspelled her name on her checks.

They ordered the wrong pattern on her checks.

One account, three errors. And the misspelled name doesn’t bode well for the bank’s fraud detection services.

We’re hoping that branches like this apply their best thinking and IT to improve their customer onboarding process. How about cutting that hour down to half an hour, spelling the customer’s name right, and not surprising her with the number of accounts she’s opened?

To win over customers, financial institutions must get that crucial first interview absolutely right.